BRIDGERTON SERIES AS A PARADIGM OF FEMINIST CO-CREATION OF THE TELEVISION AUDIENCE Graciela Padilla-Castillo, Aysel Zeynalova, Asunción Bernárdez-Rodal Complutense University of Madrid (Spain)
[email protected];
[email protected];
[email protected] INTRODUCTION Bridgerton is a television series created by Chris Van Dusen, produced by Chris Van Dusen, Betsy Beers and Shonda Rhimes. Its first season premiered worldwide on 25 December 2020 on Netflix. The first season has eight episodes, as is the norm for all Netflix series, and a second season is already confirmed thanks to the fact that it racked up 82 million views in the first month of its premiere (Zorrilla, 2021). If it follows the structure of the collection of novels written by Julia Quinn, from which the original idea stems, the series could have up to 8 seasons, as there are 8 different books, each centred on the 8 Bridgerton children. The action takes place in London, around 1810, among the high society parties. It begins with the presentation of the young brides to the Queen of England and the appearance of a gossip bulletin, signed by an anonymous author: Lady Whistledown. The plot, which at first sight does not seem very original, is adapted to our reality, offering original and necessary touches that form the basis of this investigation. On-screen, Shonda Rhimes innovates once again with a choral and multiracial cast, which she has previously imposed on all her series and which made her stand out especially from the first season of Grey's Anatomy onwards. Rhimes proposes blind casting so that actors and actresses are not chosen on the basis of physical characteristics imposed by the script.